The Great War: Memorial Day 1918

On this Memorial Day, when after the parade, speeches, and tributes people gathered at St. Mary's Academy for refreshments, we share the account of an event that took place at St. Mary's Academy as part of the Memorial Day celebration in Hudson a hundred years ago. Of course, St. Mary's Academy was a different building then. It stood on the southwest corner of Allen and Third streets not the southeast corner as it does today.

 

Because Gossips loves exposing the layers of history in Hudson and fostering an awareness of the people who inhabited the houses and buildings of the city before us, I consulted the Hudson city directory for 1918 to learn where the people mentioned in this account of Memorial Day 1918 lived. The McNamee family lived at 326 Allen Street, the house that is now Hudson City Bed and Breakfast.

In 1918, Gertrude Muldowney was the youngest of Edward and Annie Muldowney's three children. The Muldowney family lived at 258 Union Street.

William McCune's father was a grocer whose store was located at 101 Warren Street.

The McCune family lived just up the street at 117 Warren Street.

Paul Colwell was seven years old in 1918. He lived with his widowed mother and older brothers at 321 Union Street.

Paul Colwell's father, Joseph H. Colwell, who was described in his obituary as "an enterprising and highly esteemed man," had died the previous year, a week after suffering a stroke "while at work in his tonsorial parlor at 610 Warren Street." Of his death, the obituary observed: "All that loving hands and medical skill could do proved of no avail. . . ."

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